The Bryan College coach laughed, joked and had a ball talking about it Wednesday, but as the late, great comedian Bernie Mac once said, "Pain is comedy."

So Stinson and his Lions are really hurting right now. Seeing AUM just a victory away from winning the NAIA Softball World Series makes their disappointment cut deep.

"I keep seeing win after win after win, and it just makes you think, 'OK, where would we have been seeded had that been us,'" Stinson said. "If we had took care of business on Day 1, would we have been sitting in the same spot?"

Two weeks ago, the Lions were up 4-3 on the Warhawks in the Montgomery bracket of the national tournament in the seventh inning, but fell 8-4 at AUM. They fought out of the loser's bracket to earn another shot at AUM, only to see Mother Nature literally wash away that opportunity.

The championship game was called due to bad weather, and AUM advanced because it was the only unbeaten team remaining in the Montgomery bracket. The second-seeded Warhawks (43-6) are 3-0 in College World Series play, giving up just one run total in the victories.

So in order to stay sane about it, Stinson just chalks it up as it was meant to be.

"I never seen it my life rain from 11 a.m. to midnight, ever," said Stinson with a big laugh. "That was the only day I've ever seen it. Somebody must not have wanted us (to win). The powers that be above."

Told you he had a sense of humor about this, but Stinson still wonders if his team out of Dayton, Tennessee, could have gone on the same run AUM has. In postseason play, the only two teams to beat Bryan were two of the final three standing in the national tournament — AUM and fifth-seeded Reinhardt (Ga.).

Reinhardt, which beat Bryan twice in winning the AAC tourney, lost 7-6 in nine innings Wednesday to sixth seed William Carey (Miss.) in the CWS loser's bracket final. Reinhardt fell 2-0 to AUM.

So William Carey and AUM will meet in the championship game at 4 p.m. today in Columbus, Ga. If AUM takes care of business, maybe Bryan was far better than its 31-23 record would suggest.

The irony of Bryan's second game against AUM was it had been moved up from 2 p.m. to noon because the rain was forecast to begin around 4 p.m.

"I don't know who got that one wrong," Stinson said.

Bryan would have had to beat AUM twice to reach the CWS because it came out of the loser's bracket. However, Stinson made an interesting discovery in the NAIA rulebook.

Say the Lions would have beaten the Warhawks to force a decisive game and that second game was rained out. They would have each had one loss, but Bryan would have advanced because it won a game in the "championship" series.

So Stinson can understand how the team coming out of the winner's bracket wouldn't be in a rush to play if raindrops kept falling on its head.

"I'm not moving out of my chair unless you tell me two games can be played today," he said, with a chuckle. "You know what I mean (laughing). We'll be at the hotel if you all need us."

The NAIA mandated that all the opening round tournaments end by midnight that day. Stinson plans to address that rule through a ballot box.

"I'm going to have to put up a vote to add a rain day," Stinson said.

Stinson's athletic director, Taylor Hasty, took on another issue with how the opening round tournament ended. Hasty voiced a complaint to the NAIA that AUM's field wasn't properly covered with a tarp.

"What we ran into in that meeting (about playing the game if the weather cleared up) was OK, once the rain stops, how many hours does it take to get (the field) ready," Stinson said. "They said five hours."